Featured Articles
October 2016: Susan Williams published an article in the medical journal
Neurology about their ordeal with LBD.
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July 2016: A 3-minute test has been devised that is fairly accurate in diagnosing LBD and distinguishing it from Alzheimer's disease.
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November 2015:
The Guardian newspaper has a moving article about a woman dealing with LBD. The article covers the problems she had getting a diagnosis, her current experiences, and the effects on her family.
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November 2015: After actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide in August 2014, it was believed that depression had led to his death. Now his widow, Susan Williams, blamed his death on LBD.
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September 2014: The spread of alpha-synuclein, which forms Lewy bodies, has been observed in the human brain. Also, the role that alpha-synuclein normally plays in the brain has been studied.
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March 2014: Memory and thinking problems may be due to a failure in the brain's stress response system.
A stress response system that works well may protect the brain from the abnormal proteins seen in dementia.
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July 2013: A genetic biomarker that occurs in 20% of those with LBD has
been discovered. This may sometimes allow for more accurate diagnosis of
LBD and aid future research.
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April 2013: Researchers have developed a chemical compound called
Anle138b that inhibits the clumping of protein in nerve cells seen in
Parkinson's disease and Lewy body disease.
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November 2012: Researchers have learned that the abnormal protein that
forms Lewy bodies spreads from cell to cell and causes the damage
associated with Parkinson's disease.
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February 2012: Researchers have learned that abnormal protein spreads from cell to cell.
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January 2012: A British journalist asks why her mother's LBD couldn't have been diagnosed sooner.
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October 2011: October has been designated Lewy Body Dementia Awareness Month.
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January 2011: Symptoms of adult ADHD (impulsivity and hyperactivity)
were three times more frequent in those who later developed LBD than
those who didn't.
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August 2010: The onset of RBD can precede the onset of LBD and other disorders by decades — in one case by 50 years.
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July 2010: People with mild cognitive impairment and either apathy or
depression are more likely to develop dementia, including LBD, than
those with mild cognitive impairment alone.
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April 2010: Clumps of alpha-synuclein protein are found in Lewy bodies.
Researchers have now studied how alpha-synuclein molecules clump
together into an intermediate form.
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August 2009: Lewy bodies spread as Lewy body disease progresses, but the
mechanism was not known. Scientists have now determined that
alpha-synuclein, the protein Lewy bodies are composed of, spreads from
cell to cell.
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January 2009: Lewy bodies kill brain cells, but the mechanism was not
known. Scientists think they have now identified the mechanism. Also,
new research supports the finding that a kind of sleep disorder is
related to the probability of developing LBD.
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April 2008: Thomas Graboys, a Boston cardiologist and Harvard professor, published his memoir
Life in the Balance: A Physician's Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss with Parkinson's Disease and Dementia.
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August 2007: Kathie Lee Gifford revealed that her father, who died in
2002, had LBD. She left her popular TV show in 2000 to be with him.
Also, actress Estelle Getty has LBD.
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May 2007: Researchers have made discoveries that could help diagnose or
predict LBD. First, people with an extreme form of sleep disorder have a
high probability of getting LBD or Parkinson's disease. Second,
researchers are trying to develop a blood test for Parkinson's, which
could also apply to LBD. Third, people with LBD tend to experience
passive personality changes.
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July 2006: Researchers found that a mutation in a particular gene
correlates with the occurrence of Lewy body disease. Of the patients
tested, 23% had the mutation. The same gene is involved in a rare
illness called Gaucher disease.
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February 2006: Otis Chandler, longtime publisher of the
Los Angeles Times, died at age 78 from Lewy body disease. In his 20 years as publisher, he transformed the paper into one of the country's best.
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June 2005: Scientists at the University of California at San Diego
created a vaccine consisting of the protein that forms Lewy bodies.
Vaccinated mice developed antibodies that reduced the Lewy body protein
levels.
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January 2005: After a three-year bout with Lewy body disease, Robert
Heilbroner, one of the most influential economic historians of the 20th
century, died at age 85.
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